The results are in from Iowa, and now that the preliminaries are over and the 2008 presidential campaign votes actually mean something, how will all you Potluck bloggers be voting on Feb. 5?
Let's focus on the Illinois primary for now. Pretend you're in Iowa, where you have to publicly declare who you're supporting. Historically speaking, DuPage and northern Will counties have leaned heavily Republican. Who do you like among the Republicans, and what do you think of Mike Huckabee's victory in Iowa? How many Naperville voters will support Democratic candidates on Feb. 5, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both having ties to Illinois and having legitimate shots at being the first black or woman president in U.S. history?
UPDATE:
Vote for your Republican candidate of choice in The Sun's online poll, found on the right-hand side of the home page at www.napersun.com or here at http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/index.html#VOTE
In National Elections I will be voting Democratic Party for John Edwards. I just can't stand Hillary....she is so fake and phony!!
In local Elections I will be voting Napergate Party for Dick Furstenau. I can not vote for people who yell like Rosonava and Wehrli as caught by my home TV set. I have yet to see DF or anyone in his Napergate Party ever yell. I consider Rosonova to be a former Napergatian since he sold out to Bill Brestal when he gave his son a job.
I am not sure if we are having local elections to coincide with National Elections as we sometimes do in Novermber! Sorry but sometimes I fall behind on the news!
Huckabee is this year's Pat Robertson. His winning Iowa means nothing. His campaign is not sustainable.
First of all, I think it would be REALLY great if the media actually did the people a service and covered the elections that matter, as opposed to placing the tremendous amount of false importance they do on the presidential elections. I would go so far as to say that I think at least half of the people who actually DO vote don't even know the ballot has two sides. Most of us walk around patting ourselves on the back for voting for the president, when in fact the decisions our commander-in-chief makes affect us on the least. What really makes a difference is voting for your city council, your state representatives, judges, school board members; in spite of this, the media insists on making a big deal out of the presidential election.
In terms of who I'd like to vote for, that's a tough decision. I really don't want to vote Republican just because of the obnoxious way they have seemed to destroy any semblance of morality in our government over the past 12 years (yes, 12; I believe the republicans won both the House & Senate during Clinton's 2nd term), but I seem to agree most fervently with Ron Paul. Even though he's running as a Republican, he leans heavily towards Libertarian policy, which is my current favorite political group.
But, seeing as the Republicans have absolutely assassinated his character because they know if he wins, a lot of their abuse of power will have to stop (this goes for both sides of the aisle, not just Republicans). Ron Paul wants to cut congressional salaries & benefits; completely reform campaign finance, which both Democrats & Republicans are completely against; he wants to get rid of the IRS and use a flat sales tax, which Republicans hate because it means there are no loopholes to avoid paying taxes; he wants to close all military bases in other countries and seal our borders, which seems a bit extreme to me but I'm all for cutting our defense budget in half; and he's a OB/GYN so he's very qualified to tackle the health care crisis in our country from an informed, PREVENTATIVE standpoint, which is one of the most important issues in my book.
That being said, I am almost positive after watching what happened in Iowa that Ron Paul doesn't have a chance, even though he's raised more money independently on the Internet than any other Republican candidate has in total. So I'm probably gonna vote for Mr. Obama, even though I think he's a bit too young and inexperienced to really be able to get as much done as we need to at this point in the game. But he's obviously highly intelligent, educated, dedicated, and compassionate.
The best part about this election, however, is that we have a female and a black man running for president, and they're doing well. That's incredible. And what's even more amazing to me is that their race and sex hasn't factored into my decisions at all. I'm really proud to live in a country where I feel those boundaries can be blurred to the point that they just blend in, so they no longer matter.
Ron Paul can be an attractive candidate, but I don't see a national sales tax as feasible. It would just create a tax free black market for almost anything imagineable. A flat tax with much less red tape would be better. But JS is right, Ron Paul doesn't stand a chance.
I'll wait a bit to see what happens with the pressure turned up, though I find it absurd that the system let's Iowa, NH, and SC narrow the field for the rest of the country.
John Schmidt,
You stated, "The best part about this election, however, is that we have a female and a black man running for president"
What makes Obama a black man. He is 1/2 black and 1/2 white, what tips the scale to call him a black man?
Just curious.
Moderator,
If you could be kind enough to consider deleting the 3 threads that only have 2 responses each, we can keep the Furstenau blogs on the Main Page.
The last I looked the DF threads were at 250 blogs and 125 blogs each and it is sad to see the discussion end because blogs like Christmas Truce with only 2 hits each occupy important space on the Main Page.
Maybe you can find a different place for the 3 threads with only 2 blogs so the Main Page can be for the threads with say over 20 blogs each.
Just my 2 cents worth! I don't know much about organizing blogs but I would hate to see important and very busy blogs get put on the back burner and disappear while dead blogs get on the front burner and burn in the frying pan!
Having said that I am disappointed hardly anyone wants a Christmas Truce but nearly everyone wants to debate the DF issues. But I guess it seems logical to go where the bloggers want to go in order to keep your blogs very successuful and breakin new records daily.
I left other blogs to concentrate on Sun blogs and am having a better time here as people are more respectful and the delay feature minimizes fights and profanity.
Elizabeth,
Your wish is granted. Christmas truce and another post are unpublished. We'll keep Frustenau on the home page a little longer. Remember, to find older posts, simply go to the right-hand side of the page. Click on either Categories, where you'll find the Furstenau posts under City Council, or Archives, where posts are immortalized chronologically. Unless of course we unpublish them, which we will only do sparingly. We'll get another Furstenau question up on the home page soon to keep the discussion alive.
Obama is a flash in the pan! Wrote a book, went to Africa, ran for President. What has he ever done for the State of Illinois? How much time has he spent here? He's got ties to Tony Rezko, and they'll come out!
As for the Republican side, if Hillary is the nominee it will energize the Republicans like never before! Rudy will get the nomination and win it in November!!!
Ron Paul all the way.
Join the Ron Paul Revolution.
www.ronpaul2008.org
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
www.ronpaul2008.org
Host Ted Slowick,
Thanks for granting my wish two thirds of the way. You did leave one blog on that only had 2 hits in 8 days. I would have liked to see that gone too. I know I am being a bit demanding...sorry!
I understand you have to try new topics. But it is apparent that within 2 days of choosing a topic you will know whether it will be very active, moderately active, or a complete dud. I think when you get these duds, the quicker you delete them the better for all concerned!
Having them stay on a long time reminds bloggers of your bad choices in picking topics of interest for your bloggers. Having them removed within 48 hours makes bloggers forget your bad picks. No one should have their occasional failures spot lighted. Deleting them is the way to go! I want you guys lookin good since you work so hard!
Deleting the bad picks allows the bloggers to focus on your good choices and make them even more highly rated. It makes the moderator and host look much better.
And it allows us bloggers to continue blogging using the Main Page. Even though you can find old blogs in your archives my experience is once they are off the Main Page, they are as good as dead except for historical reference.
Having said that I think you guys are doing a great job, now that you are willing to delete your bad picks....hopefully in the future they will be deleted within 48 hours and not a week or two later.
I still got my eye on the last bad pick with only 2 hits and can't wait for you to delete that as in essence it becomes an EYESORE after a while with no activity.
Elizabeth,
PS. I would also like to point out that when the moderator or host makes a few posts here and there along with the bloggers, it makes it so much more exciting. I recall when I use to blog on Gretawire.com regarding the Peterson case, we would love it when Greta herself intruded with some comments. Everyone wanted to get a response from Greta. It was like a badge of honor people hoped and waited for. I am sure your bloggers want you guys to intrude a bit more on them. That would fit with your titles of moderator and host. Those bloggers especially on those Furstenau and Napegate threads seem to be going for each others jugulars so you guys need to be on to prevent them from choking each other to death. If they could, they would have...lol...!!!
Elizabeth,
OK, I took off the other one with few responses, though it makes me uncomfortable, like trying to change the past. We're old-school journalists, and once something's published in print, it's out there, you can't take it back. Unpublishing posts, however few comments they may get, feels a bit like cheating. But we're learning as we go. As for the commenters, we'll jump in there once in a while, but eventually they'll wear each other out. We saw that with the 203 threads, where there was some intense and very enlightening back-and-forth going on. Eventually the principal instigators agreed to a truce and actually arranged to meet in person to discuss their opposing views.
Just another reason to switch to forum software, you'd be able to "stick" the Furstenau threads to the top so other posts are listed below them. You're using a screwdriver to fix something that needs a wrench, Ted!
I'm kind of at a loss as to how everyone is going to vote in the upcoming election. It's too early to tell. I am amazed with the momentum Obama has been able to come up with. There are literally armies of college and high school students forming groups on sites like FaceBook and MySpace with the sole purpose of supporting Obama. (The massive college student showing at the Iowa Caucus was largely organized over FaceBook.) With how low voter turnout always has been in the past presidential elections, if passionate Obama supporters continue their success in getting people who otherwise are politically apathetic involved, it could be a land slide.
I personally dislike Obama's outlook on science and regardless of how many FaceBook Obama support group invites I get I won't be voting for him unless he changes his stance on NASA funding:
While most Americans don't care about space exploration, I think it's very important. People are quick to forget the sheer amount of technology and medical advancements we enjoy today largely in part to research associated with the Apollo program, and the Moon is practically in our back yard in comparison to going to Mars. Imagine what NASA could have done with all the money we've spent playing military whack-a-mole in the Middle East for all of these years: http://www.costofwar.comEli,
What you're saying makes total sense, but it's like asking a plumber to fix your car, or a dentist to cut your hair. I'm just a content-generating guy who has to work within the framework provided by the tech people.
I share the concern for Space Exploration funding.
Regardless of political slant, one thing is for certain and that is the inevitability of this planet to sustain life forever. Eventually the Sun will see to its demise though it may be billions of years off (if we don't beat it to the punch ourselves). Everything that ever was or will be going forward on this planet will be gone forever unless we eventually head outward.
I'm not decided on a candidate yet but whomever it is has to understand the larger long term impact of any decision they will be asked to make.
All I know is I won't be voting for Dianne McGuirre in November.
Hey, it's a only a primary. Ya think maybe 10% will bother to show up to vote?
Jim asks a good question. What do you think turnout will be, in DuPage and Will counties and the rest of Illinois? I'm guessing younger adult voters will be somewhat galvanized by a couple of the Democratic choices and turn out in greater numbers than previous primaries. After all, we're not just re-electing an incumbent this time. And I think the striking differences between several of the Republican candidates will increase participation in that party's primary. Let's see, the turnout in New Hampshire set a record at 40 percent, but good weather helped. If weather here is close to normal on Feb. 5, I'm guessing we could see turnout in the 30 percent range, maybe 35. I definitely think there will be an increase this time around.